How's Maryland racing? My 91-year-old father, a retired trainer who was a regular in Maryland and beyond way back when, asks me that question every time I talk to him.
I stay optimistic, but by now even he probably realizes it's a crapshoot.
You need a scorebook to keep track of the lineup changes around the various plans and proposals devoted to the future of Thoroughbred racing in the state.
Rebuild Laurel Park and race there. No, just train at Laurel and race at a rebuilt Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Create a quasi-government authority to make bold choices and a non-profit operating model to run the actual racing. Hold on, train and race at Pimlico. The Preakness is never leaving Baltimore . . . well, except for 2026. Create an off-track training center, after studying the viability of several potential sites around the state. Choose former breeding farm Shamrock Farm for the training center. Horses can be based there and at Pimlico. But all the racing will be at Pimlico. Laurel will be sold and developed, eventually. Shut down the quasi-government authority. Pump the brakes a little on the Shamrock idea. Bulldoze Pimlico. After much study, scuttle the Shamrock plan entirely. Agree to buy Laurel and rehab it into a suitable training center. Pimlico will be for racing only, no training.
I'm not sure I've covered it all, but you get the picture. It's been a lot. The future of Maryland racing, funded by more than $400 million in state bonds backed by racing's share of the proceeds from slot machines, has taken more turns than Olympic lugers in Cortina.
But, as I tell my father, I'm optimistic. Even if it can be a challenge to stay that way.
Maryland's Thoroughbred history counts for something. The state hosts a Triple Crown race. The Maryland Jockey Club, in whatever form, dates to 1743. Stallions, mares, foals and farms needed to care for them and raise young horses make an agricultural impact.
There's a relatively healthy steeplechase program in the state. Fasig-Tipton conducts regional auctions in Maryland. Fair Hill Training Center stands on a national reputation launched in 1983.
The non-profit business model for racing, created as a way forward amidst near disaster, adds to the formula. The Stronach Group was never going to figure out a way to make Maryland racing profitable given the business structure and the various pressure points of aging facilities, competition from other forms of gambling and a crowded regional racing landscape. If the operating model didn't change, optimism would be difficult to find.
In short, there's a chance this works. It's been messy and will surely get at least a little messier.
Maryland must weather a 2026 Preakness at Laurel with limited attendance and diminished attention. Everyone with a job to do will work at it -- after all, people who cared made Pimlico work all these years -- but it's going to be different. Delaware Park might have been a better temporary host. Sorry.
The Laurel-as-training-center plan needs to get to steps two, three, four and so on. In some ways, it's a step ahead of Shamrock, but the old racetrack is also not a blank slate and will test anyone trying to sort out all the details. One potential benefit? Laurel could still host some limited racing similar to what New Jersey does with the Meadowlands. Another potential benefit? Shamrock could become a Thoroughbred retirement facility or a racehorse therapy center.
Pimlico needs to become a construction, and not just demolition, site. Soon. Momentum matters. Without the need for long-term stabling and training, a new plant might come to life sooner and turn out better for racegoers. I know the dirt surface, and horses who race on it, will appreciate the decreased usage. I was never a "Preserve Pimlico" person, as much as I appreciated the mix of grit, charm and hard-working utility. History exists there, but precious little if anything was actually historic anymore. It was mostly just old. The historic piece to appreciate will be that racing still happens at a location first used for that purpose in 1870.
Finally, the horse piece of this puzzle needs to stay in the ring.
Breeders, owners, trainers, stallion owners must do their parts and play their roles. The work of the Maryland Thoroughbred Partnership continues to garner media attention from Baltimore-centric publications and broadcast outlets. Next stop, Annapolis. The momentum behind the Maryland Million feels like a major development with new racing and bonus opportunities coming to life this month. Likewise, the cooperation with racetracks and racing schedules in Virginia and Delaware feels like creative progress.
Finally, the horses have no idea the state's Thoroughbred world is in the midst of a makeover. We owe it to them to see it through.
I look forward to telling Joe Sr. all about it.
RIP, Champs
Two horses who appeared in the pages of MAT multiple times in the last two decades, 2005 Preakness Stakes-G1 winner Afleet Alex and multiple steeplechase stakes winner Sermon of Love, died in February. The retirees were 24 and 23, respectively.
Bred in Florida and a $75,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-year-old sales horse, Afleet Alex won eight of 12 starts and earned $2,765,800 for Cash Is King and trainer Tim Ritchey. The colt won an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male of 2005 thanks to wins in the Belmont Stakes-G1 and Preakness, where he nearly fell at the top of the stretch after colliding with Scrappy T.
The son of Northern Afleet had resided at Kentucky's Gainesway Farm since retiring to stud in 2006, and he lived in the stud barn as a pensioner since 2022, greeting visitors from the same stall and paddock where he spent his active career. Afleet Alex sired more than 50 stakes winners with progeny earnings surpassing $54.8 million. He sired Travers Stakes-G1 winner Afleet Express and Breeders' Cup winners Texas Red (Juvenile) and Afleet Again (Marathon), as well as Canadian champion Skywire.
Bred in Kentucky by Pennsylvanian F. Eugene "Fitz" Dixon Jr., Sermon of Love didn't match Afleet Alex on the racetrack or the breeding shed, but did win a hurdle stakes as a 3-year-old for trainer Jack Fisher in 2006 before selling as a 4-year-old. The son of Pulpit and Dixon's graded stakes-winning Ascot Knight mare Plenty of Sugar lost his first 15 starts for trainer Jonathan Sheppard, but broke through with an allowance hurdle score at Penn National and a maiden flat win at Saratoga in 2009. The following year, the gelding won two hurdle stakes at Saratoga, topped by the New York Turf Writers Cup-G1.
Retired and given to former Sheppard staffer Mel Williams, who now works for Mike Trombetta, Sermon of Love became a foxhunter, team chaser, point-to-pointer, hunter-trial mount, Real Rider Cup participant and even a quiet ride for Williams' young son Denny on a long list of roles.
